Character Quotes

Character Quotes

Here’s 42 quotes about character. They should give you some great ideas on how to improve & strengthen your own integrity:

The man that makes a character, makes foes. -Edward Young (1683-1765)

Man’s character is his fate. -Heraclitus

You don’t get in life what you want; you get in life what you are. -Les Brown

Character is power. -Booker T Washington

It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best reveals his character. -Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Character is what you do when no one is looking. -Henry Huffman

No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one’s sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one’s character may remain entirely unaffected for the better. -William James (1842-1910)

A half truth is a whole lie. -Yiddish proverb

Whatever disgrace we may have deserved, it is almost always in our power to reestablish our character. -Francois De La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)

It’s motive alone which gives character to the actions of men. -Jean De La Bruyere (1645-1696)

Have more than thou show, speak less than thou know. -Shakespeare

It is because they took the easy way out that rivers, and people, go crooked. -Jill Peterson

When in doubt, tell the truth. -Mark Twain

It’s important that people know what you stand for. It’s equally important that they know what you won’t stand for. -Mary H. Waldrip

Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character. -Horace Greeley (1811-1872)

A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you, and were helped by you, will remember you when forget-me-nots are withered. Carve your name on hearts, and not on marble. -Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)

The best index to a person’s character is (a) how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can’t fight back. -Abigail Van Buren

Everyone has three characters, that which they exhibit, that which they have, and that which they think they have. -Alphonse Karr

Those who cross the sea change only the climate, not their character. -Horace (BC65-8)

You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips. -Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)

If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters. -Alan Simpson

All men are alike in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ. -John Christian Bovee (1820-1904)

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are. -John Wooden

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved. -Helen Keller (1880-1968)

If a person has built a sound character, it makes but little difference what people say about him, because he will win in the end. -Napoleon Hill (1883-1970)

Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes. – Maggie Kuhn

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how — the very best I can. And I mean to keep on doing it to the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me will not amount to anything. If the end brings me out all wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference. -Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

What’s right isn’t popular, what’s popular isn’t right. -H.Cosell

A person’s character reaches town before the person does. -Danish Proverb

When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them. -Plato

Little strokes fell great oaks. – Benjamin Franklin

Character is much easier kept than recovered. -Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud. -Sophocles

Character is made by many acts; it may be lost by a single one. -Unknown

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Character is always lost when a high ideal is sacrificed on the altar of conformity and popularity. -Unknown

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you. -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, until the sun goes down. And this is all that life really means. -Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1895)

Men are not punished for their sins, but by them. -Elbert Hubbard

I have often thought the best way to define a man’s character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it comes upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: “This is the real me!”. -William James (1842-1910)

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. -Antoine De Saint-Exupery (1900-1944)

Some people strengthen the society just by being the kind of people they are. -John W. Gardner (1912-2002)

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If you still need more character quotes, you can find more here or here.